A Vow to Veto a Schools Bill in Minnesota

A visibly frustrated Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota pledged on Tuesday to veto an education funding bill that would lift state spending on schools by $400 million over the next two years — an increase that Mr. Dayton said was inadequate to serve the needs of Minnesota schoolchildren.

Mr. Dayton, a Democrat, had advocated universal prekindergarten for the state’s 4-year-olds, an initiative that was not included in the bill, which passed in the final day of the legislative session. Minnesota had a budget surplus of $1.9 billion this year, leading many lawmakers to say recently that they expected the governor and the Legislature to reach a compromise.

Instead, the divided Legislature appears headed for a special session. A long-planned renovation at the Capitol began shortly after the session ended Monday at midnight, leaving lawmakers without a place to resume work. At a news conference on Tuesday, Governor Dayton suggested holding the session in a tent on the Capitol lawn.

In a letter to the House speaker, Representative Kurt Daudt, a Republican, Mr. Dayton blamed Republicans for the impasse. He said their refusal to spend more on education was “astonishing,” given the large surplus and the Republicans’ setting aside money for tax cuts.

“It is incomprehensible that estate tax cuts for millionaires and property tax relief for large corporations are higher priorities for your House Republican caucus than investing adequately in our students and young children,” he wrote.

The governor said he had offered to sacrifice his prekindergarten program if Republicans increased school spending by an additional $125 million above the amount in the bill, but Republicans said they would go no higher than $100 million.

“I am disappointed, but I will review the governor’s preliminary ‘veto’ letter when it arrives, and I am hopeful we can resolve this without the governor forcing a special session,” Mr. Daudt said in a statement.

Republicans, who took control of the House in 2014, had pushed for $2 billion in tax cuts; Democrats favored major spending on infrastructure to repair outdated roads and bridges. Neither initiative was passed before the end of the session on Monday.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: A Vow to Veto a Schools Bill in Minnesota. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe